Breakdown of Es dudoso que lo absuelvan; sin embargo, él es inocente.
ser
to be
él
he / him (after a preposition)
que
that (relative pronoun, conjunction)
lo
it / him (m)
Questions & Answers about Es dudoso que lo absuelvan; sin embargo, él es inocente.
Why do we use the subjunctive form absuelvan instead of the normal present tense absuelven here?
Because of the phrase es dudoso que (it is doubtful that). In Spanish, phrases that express doubt or uncertainty always trigger the subjunctive mood for the action that follows, since it is not a guaranteed fact.
What is the infinitive of absuelvan, and why does it have a "ue" in the middle?
The infinitive is absolver (to acquit or absolve). Just like poder changes to puedo, absolver has an o-to-ue stem change. Present subjunctive verbs keep the same stem changes they use in the regular present tense, so the stem becomes absuelv-.
Where does the "they" come from in "they will acquit him" if there's no word for "they" in the Spanish sentence?
It's built into the verb ending of absuelvan, which is the third-person plural ("they") form. It's very common in Spanish to use this "they" form to refer to an unspecified group of people, like a jury, judge, or authority, without actually writing the pronoun ellos.
Why is it lo absuelvan and not le absuelvan?
The verb absolver takes a direct object because someone is directly receiving the action of being acquitted. Therefore, we use the direct object pronoun lo (him). While you might hear le used for "him" in Spain (a common habit called "leísmo"), lo is the standard, grammatically correct pronoun here.